A Dance with Dragons — Barristan III

The Queen's Hand rides out at dawn: Meereen's gates open for war — Unsullied, freedmen and old knighthood against the slavers' legions, while the pale mare rides every camp.

The chapter retold

At dawn Barristan Selmy leads Meereen’s scraped-together army out through its gates to meet the Yunkai’i coalition in open battle — Unsullied discipline and freedmen’s desperation and an old knight’s stubborn honor arrayed against slavers’ legions swollen with sellswords and conscripts — while behind them the pale mare keeps riding through every camp on the field, indifferent to which side it kills for.

The chapter is Barristan’s chance to prove that the Queen’s Hand he named himself can hold what Daenerys built even in her absence, and the battle it stages is as much attrition as tactics — an old knight’s honor tested against an enemy that includes plague as much as swords. Whatever the fighting decides, the pale mare is shown here doing more damage than either army, a reminder that this siege was never going to be settled by valor alone.

This movement: For the Watch

• The Pink Letter reaches Jon — Ramsay claims Stannis is dead and demands his bride and his Reek. Jon calls the free folk to march on Winterfell.
• "For the Watch." Bowen Marsh and his officers put their knives in the Lord Commander, weeping as they work.
• Barristan rides out to break the Yunkish siege as the second Battle of Meereen begins; Victarion's Iron Fleet enters the bay.
• Epilogue: Varys kills Kevan Lannister and Pycelle by candlelight — to keep the realm bleeding for Aegon's landing.